Hollywood Hijinx
Original title: Hollywood Hijinx - a zany treasure hunt
Alternative title: "Aunt Hildegarde's Secret" -- Working title
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Buddy Burbank was a B-movie actor who one day met the wealthy Hildegarde Montague and married her. His wife's money allowed him to open his own studio, where he began to produce movies such as Attack of the Killer Rutabagas and other horror titles that gained little critical acclaim but apparently sold rather well. He then died of a heart attack, and Hildegarde followed him soon. In her will, she left the Burbank estate to her favorite nephew, under one condition: he has to find ten famous props from Buddy's movies within one night. 

Hollywood Hijinx is a text adventure game. The player interacts with the environment by typing combinations of verb commands and objects. The game's environment contains secret passages and mazes, which are necessary to explore in order to find the props and successfully complete the game.

Trivia

Box contains Magazine "Tinsel World - News from Hollywood and around the globe, Vol. 35, No. 27", a Letter from Aunt Hildegarde Montague Burbank, a Photo of Uncle Buddy Burbank with poem on the back and your very own Lucky Palm Tree Swizzle Stick.

The premise of this game is riffed on in Ivan Cockrum's 1998 game Foggywood Hijinx, and its title informed an inspired sample transcript for Jamie Murray's Bollywood Hijinx in 2001 -- an homage not yet stretched out to game-length.

Copy protection for this game required the user to have the photo of "Uncle Buddy;" well, actually the poem on the back of said photo. The three cardinal directions mentioned in the poem are needed in order to properly orient the statue in the front yard of Buddy's estate. Don't have the poem? Good luck getting into the house.

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(From The Infocom Homepage Entry)

As a child, you spent most of your summers with your Aunt Hildegarde and Uncle Buddy. What memories! Uncle Buddy was a Hollywood big-shot, Aunt Hildegarde his loving (and very rich) wife. They had no children of their own, but you and your cousins loved their house, their parties, the Hollywood memorabilia, and them. Sure, Buddy and Hildy were a bit eccentric -- but that added to their charm. 

Aunt Hildegarde kept the house when Uncle Buddy passed away. And now that she's suddenly died, you remember her unusual will. You will inherit the entire estate -- probably worth millions if you can spend just one night in the house and on the grounds, find a treasure or two. But if you can't then you inherit nothing. 

And so Hollywood Hijinx begins with you being dropped off in front of a dark house, not to far from Hollywood ...

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Description from the packaging:

Vampire Penguins. A Corpse Line. Meltdown on Elm Street. Who could forget these classic Hollywood movies produced by your uncle, Buddy Burbank? But his greatest masterpiece has yet to be experienced...Hollywood Hijinx, starring you!

Your Uncle Buddy and Aunt Hildegarde have passed away, but their memory lives on in their Malibu mansion, filled with a lifetime of Hollywood memorabilia. And you've inherited it all, with one stipulation - you can only claim your booty if you find the treasures hidden throughout the sprawling beach-front estate. If you can't find the treasures in one night, you lose the whole caboodle.

It's just the sort of thing you'd expect from Aunt Hildegarde and Uncle Buddy. And their home is familiar territory: you spent your childhood summers there with your Cousin Herman. Although some say the house is haunted, you're not fooled. You know that Uncle Buddy, who wore a different polyester leisure suit each day of the week, was always rigging the place with goofy gags and booby traps.

Inside the house, everything is just as glitzy and full of fun as you remember it to be. There's the luxurious private screening room, the gold-plated bathroom faucets in the shape of Oscars, and the wacky props from old Buddy Burbank movies.
The Malibu estate seems like a funhouse at first. But the Aunt Hildegarde and Uncle Buddy weren't just kidding around. Claiming the Burbank bundle turns out to be quite a challenge- and it's all in your honor.
Hollywood Hijinx is as zany as its author, "Hollywood" Dave Anderson. It's cram-packed with puzzles that will test the wits and tickle the ribs of both first time and experienced players.

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http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/hollywood-hijinx/trivia
